Then I remembered his short lived Bravo show Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style. In his show – he talked about the 10 essential wardrobe items every woman should own. A 10-item checklist? I can start with that:

Basic Black Dress

Trench Coat

Classic Dress Pants

Skirt

Blazer

Classic White Shirt

Day Dress

Cashmere Sweater

Jeans

Sweatsuit Alternative

Bonus: One Indulgent Trendy Item Under $20

I own the majority of these items except for a Cashmere sweater (that I’ll never buy because I’m a vegetarian) and a trench coat.

I think, however, that I need to step up the classic dress pants, classic white shirt and a blazer. I have blazers but I think I need a good go to blazer that works with the majority of my items.

As for classic white shirt – I need a good, crisp white button up shirt. Preferably one that is stain resistant and doesn’t require ironing. :-)

Oprah featured a white, non-iron shirt, last year that I’ve been meaning to get. Its a bit pricey but it seems well worth it if I don’t have to iron. I have difficulty with getting button up dress shirts to appear crisp. (I am the world’s worst ironer)

I’ve had good luck with the button-up dress shirts at Banana Republic and the Limited as well – I can look boxy in the wrong cuts and the buttons can sometimes pull a bit, but these work well for me. Banana has been running a lot of sales lately, I think they are still doing a promo for 40% off full-price items on Wednesday.

I also went online at Nine West last night in my own nude pump quest and they had a few sale options that I am going to try to find in the store (since you can never really tell online).

I love shopping and looking for bargains so I am excited for you. I also really believe in dressing for the job you want and sometimes looking professional and polished really can impact your mood and motivation at work. Good luck!

Ok, so I was on a mission to find your shoes. Are you committed to the pointed toe? If not, the Madden Girl Sursey shoe should work. Otherwsie, try endless.com. You can filter down to just vegan shoes and then colors.

Honestly, how can you shop at all? It was difficult!!!

I LOVE Madden Girl shoes because they’re not leather! I’ll look up that shoe though.

AND – I love when shoe sites allow you to filter to vegetarian/vegan shoes. I’m not sure why all the sites don’t do it.

I have a closet full of those BB shirts! I love them b/c neither my gf or I are particularly handy with an iron. As for the shoes, if you want a shot at a free pair, we’re doing a promotion w/ Shoebuy as we speak! We’d love for you to check it out at Unclip.com. Okay, sorry for the shameless plug. Keep up the good work! Oh, and let me know if you ever want to do a link exchange.

Hi! I think that Tim Gunn’s list is a great start for any woman that wants to build a well rounded wardrobe…(I personally own everything on that list except for a cashmere sweater…but I probably won’t be getting one soon since I’m from LA and it’s not exactly ice cold weather :) )

However, I have a quick question for you: Why can’t vegetarians wear clothing made out of cashmere? It doesn’t make any sense to me since cashmere is made from the fur naturally shed by cashmere goats…I certainly understand the need to buy these kinds of products from sources that treat these goats humanely…but in general, I really don’t understand why vegetarians can’t use animal products that don’t hurt the animal to procure…

I tried Googling this but maybe you can shed more light on this topic. Thanks!